Rufus and Road Trips
by Khoshekh42
Summary: Team Free Will (and Gabriel) get transported to an AU where Sam and Gabriel are dating. And VERY comfortable with it. Here a group of hunters all to go to New York for a vamp nest. They carpool, and TFW is in the Impala with Rufus, who makes a fuss over Gabriel and Sam not being 'coupley' this trip. It leads to emotions. Rated T for brothers and others. Sequel to my Destiel series.
1. Chapter 1

"Just a simple witch case. Nothing much." Sam looked at Gabriel, trying to judge whether he was be up for the case or not.. Gabriel shrugged. He'd been spending a lot more time hanging around the Winchesters. It wasn't that he didn't have anything else to do, but… well he really didn't have anything better to do, but he did honestly like them. He was still REALLY glad that Sam wasn't mad at him. In fact, Sam and him were quite buddy-buddy now. Thank God though, that Sam hadn't asked him why he'd chosen THAT specific song. While that wasn't completely intentional at the time, the song took on it's own sort of meaning as time went on, he realized that the song held a little bit TOO much meaning.

Which was bad, because, if Sam ever asked him about it, Gabriel wouldn't know what to do. He wouldn't know whether to admit to why the song had so much meaning to him now. Would he even have the strength to do that?

Would he have the strength not to?

Sam snapped him back to reality, "Gabriel?" He asked, worriedly.

"What? No, I'm just thinking. but… uh, sure. I'll go along on the hunt. Why not. You might actually need me." Gabriel smirked, and tried to hide the fact that all he wanted to do was go with Sam. "So where are Cassie and Dean-o?"

Now it was Sam that smirked. "Probably making out in the hallway, hoping that no one barges in on them."

Ah, yes. Cas and Dean. They'd been together for about two weeks now, and they definitely weren't the kind of couple that commonly flaunted that in public. If you were to see them walking around, you'd know that they were a couple, but they wouldn't hold hands, and they wouldn't kiss. Gabriel hated it. He WANTED them to show the world that they were dating, even if the world could tell, simply by taking a look at their expressions when they looked at each other. But Gabriel would then digress.

Gabriel barged into the hallway. They were, in fact, doing just what Sam had predicted. Dean pulled away suddenly, turning a peculiar shade of red, and running his hand through his hair. Gabriel smirked, "You know that we all know that you two lovebirds are together, right? It's not really a mystery to us anymore. Not that it was any sort of mystery before. Anywho, Samsquatch's got a case. Down in Texas, I think. We're going, and- sorry, Dean-o- we're flying. Angel style." Dean started spluttering, "But- but- what about Baby- a- and- and witch hunting stuff!" Gabriel looked at Dean disdainfully, "Really? I'm an Archangel, and you _don't_ think that I can just transport your entire car to Texas? Puh-lease." He shook his head. Dean really could be stupid. He went back into the other room to tell Sam the conclusion. As he walked in, Sam glanced up at him from packing one of his duffles. Gabriel nodded, "Reluctant, but yeah, Dean's going. And he's- well, he's not OKAY that we're flying, but he's not in any position to ARGUE."

"Cas is making him go?"

"Cas is making him go." Gabriel confirmed, helping Sam zip the stuffed duffel closed. Cas ducked his head in. "When should we expect to be leaving?"

"Just after you guys get all your stuff together." Sam looked to Gabriel to confirm this statement. Gabriel nodded.

*:*:*:*:*

They did get all of their stuff together, and into duffles. Dean complained all the while, but was soon silenced by a warning look and a kiss on the cheek by Cas. Gabriel rolled his eyes, and took a picture to post on the blog later. (He'd gotten an account since after he'd told the Winchester brothers that he was alive.

After, it didn't take too long to get to where the witch was.

It, as they soon found out, was immensely more powerful than they had originally thought. And it had found them, sneaking around in an abandoned warehouse looking for clues as to where it was.

It cackled.

It screeched.

There was a blinding dark purple light, and they all collapsed and passed out, Gabriel being the last, trying to shoot some sort of grace towards the witch to kill it. He wasn't sure if he killed it or not.

*:*:*:*:*

Sam groaned as he woke up, every single muscle in his body seemingly cramping at once. He lied there for a second before remembering the witch. He'd obviously passed out, and yet now he was in a bed of some sorts. Sam wasn't sure how. Perhaps he'd been the only one to pass out. He extended his arms out, stretching his sore and tired muscles. He hit something- no someone- with his left hand. He opened his eyes, and turned over to look at who it was.

Gabriel.

Sam let out a high pitched screech of terror, and scrambled backwards. Gabriel bolted upright in time to see Sam fall out of the bed, dragging half of the sheets with him. He screamed too. Dean came running in with gun in hand, ready to shoot anything and everything. Cas was at his tail.

Dean groaned from the pain of running. "Sam, why the hell does it look like you just had sex with Gabriel?" He was too tired to word it any way that wasn't so blunt. Sam turned a bright of red, and both him and Gabriel started stuttering and spluttering at once about how 'nothing happened' and 'we just woke up like this' and 'where the hell is the witch anyway' and 'Aaaahhhh!'

Bobby wandered up the stairs shouting at them for not being dressed yet, people were going to arrive soon enough, and Garth was literally just entering Sioux Falls. "Also, what the hell are you two doing on the floor?" Sam and Gabriel started spluttering again.

"Don't..." He trailed off vaguely, waving his hand. He headed out of the room, leaving the Winchesters and Co. standing in confusion.  
"What?" San thought that Dean summed it up quite well

*:*:*:*:*

They got dressed, and wandered downstairs, all huddled together like a pack of penguins sheltering themselves from the cold. Bobby looked at them oddly, but made no comment. "Right." He started eventually, "They'll be coming soon, Garth'll obviously be here first. Then Raina, Cecil, and Steve. They'll be carpooling. Not sure how it'll work with Cecil and Steve, but with Rai in the car, they'll probably be fine. Though we should probably split them up on the way to New York. Rufus should be getting here soon, hopefully. Cas, you said that the angel crew'll be getting here soon as well?" Cas nodded meekly, because he wasn't sure what else to say. Bobby nodded, "Oh, Carlos can't come, he just said something about science and hung up. Christine should be here… at some point, she'll probably be late. Ellen and Jo will be here in an hour. Jeff will meet us in New York, as will Frank, then Matt. Sophie and David live near, and should be coming in a half an hour or so."

Garth did come soon, enveloping them all in tight hugs. "I saw David's car on the road behind mine at one point, but it looked like they got caught that one really long stoplight." They all nodded understandingly. They all knew, and hated, that stoplight. And sure enough there was soon a knock on the door and the married hunting couple stepped in, apologizing, and cursing that damnable stoplight. Dean wondered how hey we're able to keep themselves together, married, and yet hunt at the same time. He and Sam barely were able to keep themselves together half of the time. He wondered if he and Cas would have anything like that. He shook the thought off immediately. Or he told himself that he did, but to be totally honest, he just stored it away, and unconsciously decided to think about it later. He also refused to think about what he meant by 'anything like that' because that sure as hell sounded like he was implying marriage there. Sophie and David snuggled on the couch, and he and Cas were squeezed onto a squashy chair. Sophie looked to Sam and Gabriel, who were sitting on separate chairs. "Is anything wrong with you two? By now I was sure that I would've seen you two snogging in the corner." She laughed, as if it were a joke. Sam and Gabriel blanched. "Wh- what?"

"Come on," she chastised, "Don't act as though the entire hunter community doesn't know about you and Gabriel- probably the most open couple on the history of this planet." They balked. "Th- there's nothing-"

"Wrong." Sam covered the rest of Gabriel's sentence, praying that the theory that he was coming to was right. "I was up late researching." What Sam didn't know was that the only reason that everyone believed that research was research, and not a euphemism for sex was that if it were sex, he and Gabriel would've just said it. They, apparently, were a very open couple.  
Cecil, Steve and Raina were the next to arrive. Steve and Cecil were bickering about Janice. Raina just looked pissed. "I'm not dealing with them the entire way to New York. I love my husband, and I love my baby brother, but I'm done with them both I need some peace and quiet. Cecil! Stop arguing with Steve! Please! It's fine in private, but in front of people just don't." She scowled at them. Cecil looked sheepish. "So- uh- is Carlos coming?" He looked hopeful. Bobby shook his head. Cecil was disappointed, but was interrupted by Rufus barging in without knocking. Bobby stood up angrily, "Rufus 'ya damn idjit, yer trackin' mud on the carpet!" Rufus looked down at the trail he was leaving on the carpet. "It's just mud, Bobby, I'm sure you've had worse than just mud on your carpets. You're a hunter." Bobby scowled. "That doesn't mean that you have to track mud on the damn carpet. And knock, would'ja?" Rufus looked sheepish, but not for long, and soon he'd joined in with the huge planning session that was happening in the living room. Right now, it was mostly consisting of who was going to be in whose car." Bobby's phone rang. "Oh hell." He answered, walking into the next room, and the living room seemed quiet.

Sam's head was spinning. He hadn't been able to process what was happening. He slid out of his chair, and grabbed Dean by the arm, "Just a sec," He offered to the group. "I gotta, uh, talk to my brother for minute." He dragged him into the kitchen. "Okay, what the hell is going on, Dean?"

"From what I can tell… we're not in Kansas anymore."

"You're saying the witch knocked us into another universe?" Sam honestly wasn't sure. Dean shrugged. "It's a possibility that we should probably consider. Cause I'm fairly sure that nothing's going on with you and Gabriel. And that neither of you are all… into the other." He finished off uncomfortably. Sam flushed. "Yeah, totally." Dean's eyes widened and Sam darkened. "Dean, there's nothing. It's… this whole thing is a wreck!" He shouted this last part, and stormed out back into the living room.

Bobby looked up to see a deeply blushing (and angry) Sam running up the stairs to his room. Dean looked sheepish, but he was blushing lightly and staring at Gabriel. Gabriel wasn't paying attention, and he stood up to follow Sam, he looked back and glared at Dean, figuring that it was something that he had done to make Sam so angry and embarrassed. Bobby mentioned something about Jeff, Frank and Matt not going to there because Matt just went blind. Dean muttered something to Cas, and squished back into their chair. Cas nodded, "I already knew." Dean turned to Cas, surprised.

"It was kind of obvious, Dean, I'm surprised that you haven't noticed." Dean stared, "But… Sammy… and… Gabriel?"

"You really hadn't noticed? It's rather obvious, do you ever watch them around each other?" Dean struggled, but he did think back to a couple times he had seen Gabriel and Sam's interactions.

 _Gabriel had been lounging on a couch, humming to himself, while Sam was trying to watch television, sitting on a chair close. Sam hadn't liked that Gabriel was humming. He had put his feet up on Gabriel's chest, who'd immediately stopped humming and looked up, surprised. Sam had laughed at him. Gabriel had then tried to grab Sam's feet, and pull him off of the chair. It hadn't worked. Gabriel just scowled at him, but he hadn't been really mad. They'd spent the rest of the movie with Sam's feet on Gabriel's chest._

At the time, Dean had just thought that they were being stubborn (which they had) but…. Was there something else? Was that not it? Dean was battling himself in his head. He didn't know which side was the voice of reason. They were both the voice of reason, really. They both had some reason. On one hand, it was Sam and Gabriel, on the other they _had_ gotten closer recently. On the first hand, he honestly did think that Sam was straight, on the other, he'd also honestly thought that he was straight. On the first hand, he didn't really like the idea of Gabriel and Sam dating. On the other hand, Cas thought that they liked each other. Dean scowled. He didn't want to say that Cas _wasn't_ right, but he didn't really want to say that he was either. He sighed, and looked up towards the stairs, and wondered what Gabriel was saying to his little brother.

"Do you really think they're gonna… you know, get together or something?" Dean said it quietly, as to not have the rest of the group hear, because it would probably sound suspicious Cas looked at him sympathetically.

"And Gabriel, do you think that he…. Likes…. Sam?" Cas just kept looking at him with sympathy. Dean just shook his head, and looked back up to realize that everyone was staring at him and Cas. "…What?" He glanced around. _Shit_. He thought _. They know what we were talking about, they're going to call us out on it._ Bobby raised an eyebrow. "What? I think what we're wonderin' is why you've decided to squeeze yourself into that tiny chair with Cas." There were nods from pretty much everyone (except Cecil, who was too busy texting Dana, to make sure that the station cat was okay, and they were giving her enough food and water. Dean blinked, and mentally cursed himself for not realizing the possibility of he and Cas not being a couple in this universe. "Uhh…" He ran his hand through his hair nervously. He looked down at Cas for answers. Cas shrugged. Cecil suddenly laughed maniacally. Raina sighed, "Already?" She proceeded to fish out a ten from her pocket, handing it to her brother.

"I'm confused, what's going on here?" Dean asked, but had a sinking feeling he knew what she was going to say. Cecil beamed, "I bet Raina that you two would get together by the end of this trip."

"And I thought it was a safe bet, cause this hunt isn't gonna last that long." She mock glared at the 'new' couple. Dean had turned red. Gabriel and Sam finally came down from upstairs, and no one really paid attention. Sam was still blushing slightly. Gabriel still looked mad at Dean (he and Sam hadn't said word about what had happened in the kitchen, Gabriel had simply walked in, sat on a chair, and sat in silence. Therefore, Gabriel kept all assumptions, and was still mad at Dean.) Dean was about to say something that held a semblance of an apology to Sam, until the sound of knocking came to the door.

"It's Mels and Balthazar." Cas announced as Bobby stood to open the door. Balthazar bounced in, "Hello ladies, hello govs."

"Govs?" Gabriel asked skeptically.

"Govs. Gov'ners?" Gabriel still looked confused. Balthazar just rolled his eyes, "Of course _you_ wouldn't understand." Gabriel just scoffed at how annoying Balthazar was.

"Now we're just waiting for Chrissie, right?" Sophie asked. Balthazar sighed, "Thank you, another person that can speak English _properly._ " Sophie laughed. David snorted, "I brought her over to England for a couple years, and I had her pick up on that."

"Then you did a good job."

"Yeah," Bobby finally answered, "No, we've got Ellen and Jo that we're looking out for too." Sophie nodded.

*:*:*:*:*

It was another twenty minutes before Ellen and Jo arrived. They got to the door where everyone welcomed them with open arms. They sat down, and Jo immediately noticed Dean and Cas. She squealed loudly, "YEEEESSS! FINALLY YOU TWO GOT OVER YOURSELVES AND JUST KISSED!" She ran over and hugged Dean. She, apparently, had gotten over her massive crush on Dean. "Come on, kiss, I want a picture!" She pulled out her camera. Dean blushed, but kissed Cas anyway, still not totally comfortable with PDA and such. He wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but he really didn't want Cas exposed to homophobic society. He was too precious for that. Ellen rolled her eyes, but looked amused at her daughter's reaction.

There was a second knock at the door. Chrissie.

"Finally." Bobby muttered, "What took you so long?" She rolled her eyes, "You know Bobby, there's this thing called traffic. It really slows a girl down."

"I'm Mels." Mels held out her hand for Chrissie to shake it. Chrissie shook it, bemused, "Christine. Most people just call me Chrissie though." She turned to the rest of the group, "So! When are we hittin' the road?" She grinned, before turning to Cecil, "And I expect pictures of that cat you keep trying to tell me about." Cecil nodded, grinning back. Everyone seemed to be in a much better mood with Chrissie around. She seemed to exude that happiness. Bobby motioned for everyone to come into the front, where everyone's cars were parked.

"From what it looks like, we should have enough cars to be comfortable, but we do want to condense ourselves into less cars. The Angels have decided to trek with us, as to not spilt up the group, and so that if there happens to be any problems on the way, we can fix 'em quickly. We do not want to get there too much later than we already are. Now." He rubbed his hands together, glancing around at everyone there. We have Ellen and Jo's car, Chrissie's car- but we can't use that because it's tiny, Rai and Steve and Cecil's car, the Winchester's car, Sophie and David's car, Garth's car-"

"Actually…" Garth spoke up, "My car broke down."

"Not surprised," Dean whispered to Cas.

"Not Garth's car then," Bobby continued. "We don't have a car for Rufus, because he _crashed_ his last week escaping from the police, being the idiot that he is. Alright, we want to split up Cecil and Steve. So, Sophie and David can take Steve and… Rufus how bout. Chrissie can go with Ellen and Jo along with…"

"I'll go with Chrissie." Mels offered herself, maybe a bit hopefully. Cas squinted at her.

"Alright. We can just put Balthazar and I in with Cecil and Raina. And since the Winchester's have the most room, Garth can go with them. Any complaints?" He didn't pause, "Good, go get in your respective cars." No one complained, and they headed straight to their respective cars. Dean didn't really like the idea of having _Garth_ of all people in the Impala, but he also knew that it would be dangerous to argue with Bobby.

Sam and Gabriel shunted Garth into the middle as he was definitely the skinniest of the three. (Sam definitely wasn't with his moose-like bulk, and while Gabe wasn't the tallest of them, he wasn't that skinny either- and his body definitely portrayed his love for candy and all things sweet). Garth, however, did argue. "But guys," He said to Sam and Gabriel, "Don't you two want to sit together?" Sam turned a bright red. "Um…" He wanted to keep up their image of belonging here, but he didn't want to have to act as though he was with Gabriel the entire car ride to New York. He'd much rather just sit back in his seat, and read a book, maybe put his headphones in. Probably put his headphones in, to drown out whatever Garth would be saying. "No," He eventually told Garth. "We'll all probably be more comfortable." Garth looked worried, thinking that here was something wrong with their relationship (not that there wasn't), but didn't say anything. Perhaps he would try to help on the road. Garth smiled at the prospect of renewing a possibly broken relationship.

Ellen and Jo ended up in the front as Chrissie insisting that she preferred the back because she could spread out more (despite her own car being absolutely tiny), while Mels was in the back because she was an angel, and it didn't really bother her being uncomfortable

Balthazar looked less than thrilled with sharing a car with Cecil, but as Bobby was also in the car, he wasn't going to complain. He just sat scowling in the backseat, while listening to Cecil prattle on (in his, admittedly soothing voice) about his job, cat, and boyfriend.

Steve didn't appear happy with being split up from his wife, and would rather be with Cecil than Rufus to be honest. He didn't say anything, however, because he and Cecil in the same car would annoy Rai, and that was definitely the last thing that he wanted to do. Sophie and David weren't excited about having people who were generally annoyed (Steve) or talked to much (Rufus) in their car, but they put up with it for fear of Bobby.

*:*:*:*:*

As soon as they got on the road, Garth made them regret allowing him in the Impala in the first place.

"So, are you two fighting, or like, splitting up for good…?" Sam went (for what felt like the thousandth time that day) deep red. Gabriel was blushing too but it wasn't anywhere near as red as Sam's was. They didn't answer. Garth wasn't going to have that. "You know, talking it out should probably help."

"Garth, we don't really want to talk. Okay?" Sam told him, trying to sound nice, but inside he was seething. He really didn't want to talk about any of this, especially with Garth. But he kept his cool. He didn't want to get mad at Garth though.

"It really helps a failing relationship."

"No." Sam emphasized.

"But-"

"Stop getting into our shit, Garth." Sam regretted it as soon as he said it, but didn't show it. He turned to face the window and put his earphones in. He blinked back tears of frustration. He just wanted to get home. He just- well, he just wanted it to be _over_.

*:*:*:*:*

Three hours later found the entire group pulling into a Buckee's, stretching, getting snacks, filling the gas tank, and peeing. Dean walked over to Bobby, and started to talk to him quietly. "Hey. I don't think that Garth being in our car is going to work." Bobby looked skeptical, but he nodded, turned around to find a replacement. He nearly ran straight into David.

"What is it with you?" Bobby growled.

"I don't want to cause any trouble, but, well, we're trying to keep this a little hush-hush, but we wanted to come because we'd heard that there were cancelations, and we wanted this to be as easy as possible, but we're looking into the possibility that Sophie might be pregnant, and she's been sleeping more, so if you could… maybe… replace Rufus with someone with a little bit more… control over their mouth. I mean, he talks a _lot_ , and with Sophie trying to sleep… it's just not really working."

"Perfect, we'll exchange Garth for Rufus. Is that fine with both of you? Great." Bobby once again didn't allow for any complaints. Dean figured it had to be better than Garth, who had continued trying to mediate between Sam and Gabriel, to no avail- because there was no relationship in the first place. David went over to talk to Rufus. "Listen, uh, it looks like the Winchesters are having a few problems with Garth in their car, and Bobby was- er- _wondering_ if you'd be so kind as to switch places with him."

And Dean went over to talk to Garth. "Listen, uh, it looks like Rufus is causing some issues with Sophie and David, and Bobby wanted you to switch places with him because- uh- you can shut up and not talk while Sophie's trying to sleep."

Both parties agreed, and soon they were back on the road, after a quick word from Bobby about how they'd be spending the next four hours in car, and that's when they'd check into their hotel.

Besides Rufus being in the car, they'd made the adjustments so that Gabriel was in the middle because now that Garth was gone, he was now the least-wide of the group.

"You know," Rufus begun, as they were just pulling out of the gas station, "For some reason I could never really picture you and Cas together. I always kinda thought that you were like, asexual and aromantic, and stuff like that."

"Well," Cas tried to explain (rather awkwardly), "Uh," His argument about angels being creatures of love fell apart in his mouth as he remembered that in this place, Gabriel and Sam were supposed to be an item. "Uh… I guess it just kinda… worked out?" Dean rolled his eyes.

"That reminds me, what's up with you two? I don't think I've ever seen you two going this long without having each other's tongues in your mouths." Apparently, Rufus though he was quite clever. Sam tried not to get mad at Rufus, because he didn't know what was really going on.

"Could you just shut your pie hole, Rufus?" Gabriel asked, somewhat annoyed and angry, but also tired and with general submission. Rufus just shrugged, "I'm just sayin' if you two are arguin' then it's none of my business, but-"

"You're goddamn right, it's none of your business!" Sam interjected before he could say anything more.

"So you are fighting?"

"That's not what I'm saying…" He growled.

"I'm just sayin'" Rufus (stupidly) continued, "That I haven't seen you guys do anything couple-y since I got here and that's been four hours at least, and usually by now Gabe'd be asleep on your shoulder and you'd've made out too many times to count. I mean, if you just kissed or something, I wouldn't bother ya, but I'm just tryin' ta help, ya know?"

"That's not what you're doing." Sam told him, completely deadpanned, trying to make sure he didn't explode.

"Just one kiss is all I'm saying-"

"GODDAMN IT RUFUS, JUST SHUT THE HELL UP WON'T YOU? CAN'T YOU SEE WHEN YOU'RE NOT WANTED?" Sam roared, finally losing whatever cool he had left, causing everyone else in the car to jump, and Dean to swerve dangerously into the middle of the road. Ellen honked angrily from behind them.

Rufus, somehow, could not see when he wasn't wanted, and very idiotically started talking again. "I was just trying to help. I thought that maybe a kiss might-"

"You're really going to do this?" Sam asked him, voice borderline murderous.

"I'm just tryin' to help, Sam! You don't have to go bat shit!"

"Am I really the bat shit one here?!" Sam was raising his voice again.

"I'm not trying to sound crazy, I'm just saying that it looks like somethin' is wrong! I thought I could fix it!"

Sam borrowed some words from Dean, "YOU CAN'T FIX SOMETHING THAT'S NOT BROKEN!" Dean swerved into the middle of the road again, but neither one in the backseat seemed to notice. Cas clutched onto Dean's arm in warning.

"IF IT'S NOT BROKEN THEN WHY WON'T YOU JUST KISS?!"

"WHY DO YOU CARE?"

"BECAUSE I LIKE YOU GUYS!"

"WE. DO. NOT. WANT. YOUR. HELP."

"THEN JUST KISS HIM."

"THEN JUST SHUT UP!" Sam knew the argument didn't make much sense, but he was in more of a blind rage now, and didn't really care, just so long as Rufus actually _would_ shut up. Dean was regretting saying anything to Bobby. The tense silence was better than this. Gabriel was cowering between the shouting.

"WHY DON'T YOU TRUST ME?"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Sam's arguments weren't changing much at this point.

"I WILL IF YOU PROVE THAT NOTHING'S WRONG AND JUST KISS!" Neither side really cared about what would happen if they won, they just wanted to win and get the last word in.

"NO!"

"WHY NOT?"

"BECAUSE I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU TRY TO TELL ME! THERE IS NOTHING WRONG!"

"THEN WHY DON'T YOU KISS HIM?" It was at this, that Gabriel broke. It was at this, that Gabriel didn't care anymore. It was at this, that Gabriel- well, he just wanted it to be _over_.

It was at this, that Gabriel just leaned over, grabbed the back of Sam's head, and kissed him. Not for very long, not with much meaning, but he kissed him. "There." He mumbled, "Are you happy now?"

The whole car was silent, and Sam just sat there, shocked, not moving. Dean barely caught himself before he swerved into the middle of the road again while Cas was still clutching his arm from the last time, now seemingly unable to let go. Gabriel stayed slumped in his seat, staring down at his shoes. And Rufus didn't say a word. He didn't say anything about how he was right, or that he realized that everything was fine (it obviously wasn't), or even that it wasn't fine. He just sat there, looking like he had been about to argue again, but had lost all gusto.

Sam didn't move again the entire car ride, save just once to just turn to stare out the window at the world passing around him. Gabriel stayed slumped in his seat, and really didn't move again through the car ride. Rufus now seemed to look slightly ashamed, realizing now- a bit too late- that he'd probably done more harm than help. Dean drove quietly, trying to process what had happened. Cas had gotten confirmation that there was definitely something up with Gabriel and Sam, whether they chose to admit it to their selves even. He was sure that they were working it out just then, in the rest of the car trip. He was knew that Gabriel was sure to vanish as soon as they got to the hotel, and not appear until… probably until Cas himself went to go find him in whatever tiny restaurant/coffee shop that he'd decided to hole himself up in. He felt slightly guilty for not intervening before Gabriel had gone to such lengths to end the screaming. Cas wished he could put in some music to lighten the mood, but he knew that that was a definite bad idea. That the cassette tape was sure to be violently ejected and crushed. Then Dean would be mad. And the last thing that he wanted was for Dean to be mad at him. He only spared glances back at the backseat through the mirror, not wanting any of them to catch him looking, even though he knew that they were probably all wrapped up too deep in their thoughts to notice.

They pulled into the hotel parking lot just a bit early (thank god), and as everyone got out, Gabriel, just as Cas had predicted, flew off on the spot. Dean glared half-heartedly at Rufus, and while he was mad at him, he didn't want Rufus mad at him now, and he really did want him to know that if he really did hurt his little brother then he would have hell to pay. Nobody questioned why Sam was so quiet and why Gabriel was gone. The entire group all looked guilty enough (and blank in the case of Sam) that they knew not to ask.

They all went in separately, as if they didn't know each other, although that story didn't even hold till morning. Chrissie and Mels seemed to be inseparable now, talking and laughing all the way to their rooms. Steve was glad to see his wife again, and he and she headed off to their room. Cecil had a room by himself that he had been supposed to be sharing with Carlos, except that he had said 'science' and hung up. Gabriel wasn't there, so Sam had the room to himself.

Dean went over to talk to Bobby for a second time that trip. "Listen, Bobby, uh… Rufus isn't gonna work. You mighta noticed, but Gabriel isn't… isn't really here. Rufus and Sam were arguing and stuff came up… Let's just say that things didn't end well and Gabriel ended up just leaving. So… tomorrow, we'd appreciate if you replaced Rufus with someone a little more… not talkative." Bobby rolled his eyes. "The hell did Rufus do this time?" Dean looked sheepish, "It's none of your business. But it wasn't good, and I don't want to spill Sammy and Gabriel's secrets. Not unless they want to." Bobby sighed. "Well, we'll work it out in the morning. We all need sleep now, after driving for hours, and apparently screaming at each other for hours."

Dean agreed. He seriously agreed. He needed sleep bad. He met back up with Cas, and they walked to their room, snuggling up to Cas, and went to sleep as soon as his head hit his pillow.


	2. Chapter 2

Dean woke up, Cas pulled into his arms, and head snuggled into his shoulder. Suddenly the door blasted open and Jo ran through, making trumpeting noises. "Bum ba-da bum bum, bum ba-da bum bum, bum ba-da bum bum, bum ba-da bum bum, ba-da-da bum." She finally noticed Dean and Cas snuggled up on the bed. She grinned and started giggling. "Oh my god! You two are so adorable! Now get up, it's already seven!" She giggled, and skipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Dean groaned, rolling out of bed and pulling on a shirt. He wondered why hunting required a person to get up so early. He shuffled into the tiny breakfast area that the hotel provided. Cas was quick on his tail. He saw that Sam was already sitting at one of the small round tables, no food sitting in front of him. Dean wanted to assume that he'd already eaten, but he really couldn't be sure, judging by what had happened the day before. Dean just worried about his brother. He wasn't sure about how he felt about Sam having feelings for Gabriel of all people. Seriously, this was he guy that sent Sam through torture by making him go though a time loop of Dean dying day after day after day. (Not that Dean knew that he'd also done it to Cas). Sam didn't look at anyone and his eyes were red and swollen from crying. Dean wondered if he'd gotten any sleep, and if he'd been crying all night. Dean glared again at Rufus for good measure. He wanted to let the bastard know that he would pay for anything that he'd done to his little brother.

Gabriel's anger for Rufus, who was babbling on next to him about he and Sam, was beginning to boil over. So when Sam and Rufus started screaming at each other, it hadn't taken long for Gabriel to give in to Rufus. "THEN WHY DON'T YOU JUST KISS?" Gabriel had had enough. He didn't like the shouting, and he sure as hell didn't like the reminder that there wasn't any chance if a future for he and Sam. So he grabbed the back of Sam's head and pulled him forward, and kissed him. He was terrified to put any feeling into it, and knew that that was the right choice as soon as he pulled away, completely unable to breath. Sam was staring at him, unblinking and wide-eyed. Dean-o the idiot has nearly killed them swerving into all of the lanes. Gabriel had been cursing to himself the entire rest of the car ride, and the only reason that he didn't disappear the and there was because he wanted to know what hotel they were going to be staying at. Hunters didn't generally tell people things that they were already supposed to know. Like the stops along the Road of Doom to New York. Sam only moved once through the next hour getting to the hotel, and that was to turn to face the window. Great, Gabriel thought, he hates me now. Gabriel continued cursing himself internally. And as soon as he arrived at the hotel, he left with the quietest wing fluttering he could manage. He flew to... Anywhere would do really. He found himself on a sidewalk on a small town road. He looked up and down the street. They didn't have a bar. That was a shame. Gabriel found himself wandering into a small local coffee shop, drawn by the smell of coffee and honey. The employee standing at he counter smiled at him oddly. "Hello." He said, pleased, but slightly wary. He had a British accent. That was nice, always calming. He had a nice mop of hair, and looked overall rather attractive. Except that made it worse for Gabriel, who couldn't even bring himself to flirt with the man, Charles, his name tag told Gabriel. He slumped down into a chair. All of Charles's wariness vanished, and looked suddenly worried. "Are you all right?"  
"No." Gabriel answered simply, sounding absolutely miserable.  
"Bad breakup?" He sounded sympathetic.  
"Not exactly in the normal sense of the word." Gabriel told Charles, bitterness creeping into his voice. "Do you know what it feels like to not know if there's something there, and just as soon as you think there's a chance they like you, you realize just how friggin' stupid you are, and that you've just screwed up anything and that your world is falling apart around you? You thought that things were changing, and you thought they had gotten of the shitty thing that you did in the past, but then they just hate you now more than ever, just because of stupid, effing, Rufus." Gabriel growled Rufus's name. Charles raised his eyebrows. "That's certainly a very...specific example. But I think I can kind of understand. Do you want to talk about it? Probably would've helped for me." Gabriel looked up at him. "Can you just assume that I am VERY drunk right now, and nothing I say right now is any sort of semblance of the truth?" Charles had never heard a very drunk person say the word semblance, but nevertheless agreed and asked the strange man to continue.  
"So I was kind of dick to him a while back, basically putting him through emotional trauma and torture, but I was trying to help. Then we got to know each other, and it was a whole thing where my brother killed me while I was protecting him. Needless to say I didn't actually die, I faked my death, but the dear brothers didn't realize that. So when I finally told them I was alive, it was complicated, but I put my brother through the same sort of emotional trauma I put Sam through, and then he went and defeated his arch nemesis, another one of our brothers, who was trying to start the apocalypse- again. And then there was a whole thing where I finally got Cas's- my brother, and Dean's- Sam's brother, heads out of their asses and got hem together, and Sam and I seemed to be cool after that. We were friends and we'd joke- even flirt, but thats just my personality. And then last night, we were trying to defeat a witch, but it sent us all, Cas, Dean, Sam and I here- into an alternate universe where Sam and I actually are a couple. And here was this vampire nest that a bunch of people are looking into. And there's this dude- Rufus- who was bugging us about not being very couple like. Cause we're the couple that doesn't mind PDA at all, and will openly make out in public, apparently. And so he was doing all this shit while we're both trapped in a car. And so... He's telling us to just kiss, and he'll believe that there's nothing wrong with our relationship. So... I kissed him. Nothing special just... Just a kiss. And he just STARED at me, like seriously just openly gaped at me. And he just stared out the window for the rest of the time. Father... I screwed up." Gabriel clunked his head down onto the table. Charles patted him uncomfortably, "Hey, I'm sorry. Um... What's this brother that tried to kill you? Does he have a name?" Gabriel snorted scornfully. "Yep. Lucifer. My brother is LITERALLY Satan." Charles raised an eyebrow. "I knew someone." His eyes clouded with obviously painful memories, "His name was Erik. We had some very opposing views, and we didn't... We never got together. Same as you, thought I had a chance, but I never got a chance to find out, he ran off. He's in prison now. But, well, he is a good person. Somewhere."  
"What was it that you disagreed on?" Gabriel asked, not particularly interested, but wanted to continue the conversation. He didn't want to be alone. He was afraid to be alone.  
"He was... It's- it's not really my story to share. It's a bit personal." Gabriel nodded blankly, still wrapped up in his own thoughts. "Hey, uh, do you know any hotels around here I could crash at?" Gabriel didn't technically need sleep, but after the day that he'd just had, he didn't really want to have to lie awake all night and think about the crap that had happened that day.  
Charles was very confused. This guy obviously wasn't local, he'd never seen him around, for one. Except he talked as though he'd just come from somewhere, and there weren't any towns or cities anywhere close by.  
"There's one down the street." He said, answering his question about hotels. "Uh, if you don't mind, where are you from exactly?"  
"Heaven." The man responded, and walked out the door. Charles blinked a couple times and wondered if that was supposed to be a bad pick-up line.  
Gabriel found the hotel down the street. He checked in for one night, and collapsed on the bed in his new room. He flicked on the TV, he was trying to distract himself from all things Sam. Doctor Who was on. Sam loved Doctor Who. Doctor Sexy. He put the Winchesters in that show the one time. White Collar. Cop show, he'd dropped them in one of those too. Teletubbies. Just no. Ghostbusters. Come on! Twilight. *Gags*. Harry Potted marathon #792. Sam liked Harry Potter too... My Little Pony. Bitch please. Frankenstein. Monsters, really? Antiques Road Show... Fine. Gabriel settled down to watch the show, magicking ups a pound of chocolate and lollipops.  
Gabriel woke to find a too-cheery weatherman with a first name for a last name, shouting at him that the day was going to be hot and dry. There was a rapping at the door. "Sir? It's time to check out, sir."  
Gabriel rolled over in the bed. "Five more minutes." The woman didn't hear him. She'd already walked off to tell someone in a different room that they needed to check out. Gabriel stretched and sat up. He turned off David Paul, the first-name-only weatherman. He sat still for a minute, not really sure what to do next. Cas made the decision for him.  
"Gabriel."  
"God, Cassie!" Gabriel shouted, throwing one of the pillows at his brother. Cas didn't flinch. On the contrary, he was confused as to how Gabriel thought throwing a soft pillow would accomplish anything.  
"What do you want, Cas?" But he knew what it was. He was here about Sam. God dammit.  
"I'm here about Sam." Cas only confirmed what Gabriel already knew.  
"Well what the hell am I supposed to do about it?!" Gabriel shouted testily at Cas. When Cas spoke, he was quiet. "You really love him don't you?" Gabriel just sat and stared at him. All of his gusto and anger draining away, however cliche it sounded.  
"Yeah. And what the hell am I supposed to do about it." He didn't shout this time, and he didn't even ask it as a question. He just wanted to know how he was supposed to deal with falling in love with a Winchester. Because Gabriel couldn't do it on his own.

 **A/N: Sorry this is a bit late, but I was busy... being lazy... Sorry bros. I have the... first... well, paragraph of the next chapter. Please like and comment. Hey, thanks.**


	3. Chapter 3

Dean really was worried about Sam. He seemed completely lost in himself. Lost and depressed. He decided to go over and talk to him, just to make sure that he was okay.

"Hey Sammy." Sam looked up from staring at the table. He didn't look happy to see Dean. But on the other side, he didn't look particularly _unhappy_ to see him. He looked kind of dead to the world to be honest. Dean sighed. "What's up Sammy?" Sam glared at Dean, not even bothering with a bitchface, just putting spite in his eyes and letting Dean figure out the rest.

"What's up? Really, Dean? Do you really wanna know?" Dean nodded, wondering if he was going to regret this. Sam laughed at him, but with no humor. "Fine. He kissed me, Dean. He kissed me. That's what's up. He kissed and left me alone.  
"Well to be fair he did stay in the car for quite a while before he flew away."

"He _kissed me_ Dean. That's the kind of thing that you have to process. If Cas had kissed you back before you two became a couple, what do you think that you would've done?" Dean could see his point, but he decided to mention something else he'd noticed. "You're comparing you and Gabriel to me and Cas?" Sam went red. Dean grinned, even though he knew that Sam had done enough of the same thing teasing him about Cas- and he'd felt absolutely horrible while it was happening. But Dean convinced himself that this was _different_. He knew it was exactly the same- even though the details were a bit off.

"Do you really like him that much?" Dean asked, and Sam stared down at the table, sighing. "I do, Dean. It wasn't anything that I expected, or even thought a possibility. I mean, I spent six months of my life tracking him down completely determined to kill him when I found him. God, if that had all been real, I killed Bobby just to get my revenge. But then he came back in the whole TV Land fiasco, and… he changed, Dean. He just wanted his family to stop fighting. I… Dean he cared about his family like I care about you. About Dad even. And he fought his brother- knowing full well that that could be the day that he died. Except he didn't, but… but god I missed him. I missed him more than I should've. I loved him more than I should've. Dean… I sure as hell accepted my sexuality a long time before you did. I knew I was pan back in college, but… I never that I would fall in love with a man that put me through hell for over half a year. I think he's changed since the Mystery Spot.

"Back then, he just didn't want the apocalypse to take place. He didn't want his family to fight. He was willing to give up his life for us, Dean. I mean, he was pretty much an honorary Winchester at that point. That was such an idiotic thing to do, I mean, he pitted himself against Satan, his brother, so that we could get out of there alive. God, Dean, I know that you don't like him, but he has changed so much since the Mystery Spot, and that's the Gabriel that I fell in love with." It was only then that Sam finally looked up from staring at the empty sugar packet that he was messing with in his hands. Dean was staring at him, almost vaguely uncomfortable. "It's not…" He started, then paused, thinking about what he was going to say. "It's not that I don't like him," Sam looked at him skeptically.

"Really. It's not that I don't like him, but… Sam you're my little brother. It's a requirement that I worry about you, and… I don't want you to get hurt. You're right, Sam. You put you through hell for six months, and I don't want him to hurt you like that again. You deserve someone better than that. And… yeah, he has changed since we knew him as the Trickster. But just be careful with him Sammy. If he hurts you, I'll rip out his lungs." Dean said this last sentence with a smile, to tell Sam that he was trying to make him laugh. It didn't work.

"You're trying to give me the 'if you hurt him' speech, Dean? Really? He doesn't even like me. Not like that. I mean, sure we've become friends, but I wouldn't say that he likes me like that." Dean scoffed, "You kidding me? The guy fawns over you, Sam. He was willing to die for you, to kill his own brother for you. I wouldn't kill you if it meant saving anyone, Sam."

"Yeah, well his brother was literally Satan, so I think that might make that job a little easier. You know, stopping the apocalypse. Tiny bit more important than family. Especially when it's your family who's bringing about the apocalypse." Sam went back to fiddling with the sugar packet. "Go talk to Cas. Or Mels and Chrissie. I'm fine."

Dean could tell that Sam didn't want to talk to him anymore, so he stood up, and looked down at Sam for a few moment before walking over to a different small table in the breakfast area. Sam looked sad. He really was worried about him. Sam could really get stuck in a rut if he got really depressed. Nevertheless Dean left, glancing back at Sam's table every so often, just to make sure that he was okay. He couldn't find Cas, so he found his way over to where Jo was sitting, sifting through a pile of papers that Bobby had given her to look through before the hunt actually started.

"What's all that?" Dean asked her, motioning at the papers, and already looking at her sympathetically. Jo looked up. She sighed, and put down the papers that she was holding. "To be totally honest, I'm not really doing any work right now. I was just shuffling papers hoping that it would look like I was doing something. Research notes. It was supposed to be Sam going through this stuff- he was the one who figured it out in the first place- but now he's in some sort of weird slump and it all got dumped on me. What's up with him anyway?" Dean sighed, and sat down across from her. "It's a long ass story that doesn't need to be told right now. You want help?"

Dean spent most of his morning with Jo, helping her go through all the papers, figuring out things from what time would be best to strike the nest, to exactly which aliases people would be using and their exact jobs through the entire hunt.

*:*:*:*:*

Cas didn't know what to do with Gabriel, who was still moping in his hotel room, watching crappy television and refusing to go back to talk to Sam. He was definitely concerned, not really sure if Gabriel was going to get over this. Cas realized he really appeared to have fallen hard for Sam, and getting supposedly rejected like that. He still wasn't sure how that was rejection. It wasn't like Sam had screamed or anything. Just when Cas thought that he was getting a handle on human emotions and reactions, something like this happens, and all of that falls around him. Still he stays with Gabriel, because he knows enough to realize that Gabriel wouldn't want to be alone. Even if all he really wanted to do was find Dean and do anything but take care of his brother in his (admittedly pitiful) state. Gabriel was currently staring at the television with dead eyes, not even processing what David Paul was saying about the tropical storm Harold that was mixing in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Gabriel." Cas finally said, "You're going to have to go back at some point, and it's probably going to be better sooner than later. The longer you stay away the more awkward it's going to get." Gabriel tore his eyes away from the weather to look at Cas. "Really, Cas? It's going to get more awkward? I was kind of hoping for the 'I'm never going to see the kid again' realm." Cas glared at him before getting a strange expression on his face. "Gabriel. That's not going to be possible. You know that." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Really, Cassie? Because I think that- as an archangel- I've kind of earned the right to do whatever the hell I please."

Cas mumbled something under his breath that he obviously didn't want Gabriel to hear. He didn't account for Gabriel being able to read his mind, or do whatever it was that Gabriel did. Gabriel's eyes flew wide, and he swung his legs off over the side of the bed, turning completely to face Cas. "Shit, Cas, really?" Cas nodded embarrassedly, looking down to fiddle with his hands.

"When?" Gabriel asked, looking completely in awe. Cas shrugged. "Whenever there's time I suppose. It's not even a certainty yet, Gabriel." Gabriel scoffed. "Yeah right." He smiled for a moment, before sighing, and putting his face in his hands. "I have to go back, don't I?" Cas nodded slowly, sympathetically.

"What am I supposed to say to him, Cas? This isn't the kind of thing that Sam Winchester is just going to choose to ignore and move past. He's not exactly Dean. He's kinda more of a touchy-feely type of person than your Dean is."

"Just… ignore it until he brings it up?" Cas offered up helpfully.

Gabriel sighed, and started mentally preparing himself to go back to Sam.

*:*:*:*:*

Gabriel could admit to himself quite readily that he was absolutely terrified. His insides felt like they were shaking. The last time he'd felt this scared had been back at the Mystery Spot, and he'd looked into Sam's eyes, completely ready to tell him that he's done with it, and there was nothing that Gabriel could do about his brother, but then encountered Sam' sad little puppy dog expression and he decided to give him a second chance. Even though he knew that if he let it continue the Apocalypse would begin. He flew into the lobby of the hotel they were staying in, a feeling of dread weighing heavy on his heart.

"Gabriel!" It was Mels. She seemed particularly chipper this morning, "Where have you been? Sam's in some sort of slump, we need you to go help Jo and Dean who are _taking over_ for Sam's job because he's so out of it. Now, go, either figure out what's up with your boyfriend, or help Jo and Dean. Jo looks like she's ready to kill someone." Gabriel licked his lips nervously. "Um, yeah, I'll go… where?"

"Oh they're all in the breakfast area. A couple people have gone through there, so I'm not entirely sure if Jo and Dean are still looking through their hunting notes, as much as quietly discussing tactics." Gabriel nodded, and he felt a rock fall in his stomach. Now that he'd agreed to help, he couldn't back down, but he didn't really want to find himself in the same room as Sam. (Or Dean for that matter, but he'd rather that then having to have a feelings conversation with Sam). He braced himself again, the trembling feeling coming back to his stomach. He wanted to cry, or scream, or really mostly just leave. He took a step forward, and another and another, until he found himself standing at the door of the breakfast area.

He opened the door.

No one noticed him, until Dean saw him, and stood up. Everyone in the room looked at Gabriel. Sam turned a deep red.

"Heya Sammy boy." Gabriel said quietly. "Hey, Dean, Cas wants to see you." He told Dean, who didn't leave. He looked at Sam, silently asking if it was okay to leave. Sam nodded. Jo grumbled something under her breath about not asking her if it was okay if Dean were to just abandon her to look through all of this crap alone, but ended up leaving with Dean as he slowly walked out of the breakfast area, not taking his eyes off of Gabriel. Most of the people had went back to eating, but a couple had sensed the excitement in the air, and continued to watch. One had pulled their phone out and (unbeknownst to them) began filming in hope of a viral video.

Gabriel walked towards the table that Sam was sitting at. "Sammy… I-"

"I get it, Gabriel. You just wanted Rufus to shut up. It's fine. Just warn me next time."

"It's not-"

"I _know._ I know. Okay?" He looked up at Gabriel with a pained expression. "I get it. That's fine if it doesn't mean anything. It shouldn't have."

"Sammy, I wasn't-"

" _I get it_."

"No you don't!" At this, a couple of the people who had went back to eating looked up quizzically.

"You don't get it Sam! I'm _sorry_ okay? If I could, I'd probably still be back at a different motel, watching some dumbass weatherman tell us about a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico. But… Cas was there, and…" Gabriel laughed feebly, "It'd be awkward if the next time that I saw you was at the wedding."

Sam sat up. "What wedding?" Gabriel smiled, a bit of his old smirk creeping back onto his face. "The wedding. Cas is going to propose."

"Wait what? When? How do you know this?" Sam stood up, seeming to have forgotten the awkwardness between them for the time being.

"Well he kind of forgot that I'm an archangel, and can go straight past whatever barriers that he might put up in his head about angel telepathy and whatnot, so… yeah. Plus, twenty bucks that it happens before the end of the hunt." Sam laughed and dragged a hand through his hair. "Yeah right." A pause, "What do we do?"

"As much as I love to intervene, I think we should sit this one out. Let Cassie do it on his own." Gabriel took a deep breath. "And Sam… I really didn't mean anything by… you know…" He blushed while saying. Sam turned a bit red. All of the hunters that had been in the breakfast area had apparently decided to leave a while back (when Gabriel had first entered the small room), leaving only a couple making out in the corner, the woman filming in the other corner, and a small family who was appeared to be traveling. There was a pause on Sam's face, until he stepped forward and kissed Gabriel.

The woman in the corner gasped. The mother of the small family looked at them interestedly, while the father looked on disapprovingly. The children were too busy playing with their oatmeal.

Sam stepped back, face on fire. He chuckled, eyes wide with shock from what he'd just done. "Did it really not mean anything?" He grumbled under his breath. Gabriel grinned, laughing slightly. Within seconds, they both dissolved into laughter, slumping down into the chairs at the table that Sam had been sitting at in the first place.

"We're really stupid aren't we?" Sam asked fondly.

"Well judging that I literally convinced myself that never seeing you again was the best option in this scenario, yeah, _I'm_ definitely a massive idiot. You on the other hand-"

"No, don't try to cut me out of this. It's just as much my fault as it was yours. I was sitting that car for an hour or so without speaking up once. I could've solved this entire fiasco in a second, but instead I chose to sit there and stare out the window like an idiot." They sat in silence for a minute.

"You know…" Gabriel started, a very Trickster-ish grin coming across his face. "I wouldn't want to interrupt Dean's oh-so-very-important work that he's doing. I mean, it could be detrimental to the hunt itself. And I wouldn't want to get anyone hurt. We could just… wait to tell him and Cassie about this until we're back… home." Sam laughed. "Hmm. What would we get out of that?" Gabriel thought for a moment. "I'm sure they'd try and conspire on how to make us friends again… Might give Cassie a bit of alone time." Sam grinned, remembering now their previous conversation. "Yeah, but I'd like to see that." Gabriel looked thoughtful. "True. True. Something about how we won't work together without them? You know. Awkwardness and all?" Sam nodded slowly. "I suppose we could just let it play out?"

"If you wanna tell them you can."

"No! No!" Sam shouted assuredly. "No it's a great idea, even it's just simply to mess with their heads." Gabriel grinned. "I like the way that you think Sam Winchester." He stood up. "So. I suppose now I need to leave and pretend to sulk."

"And I will sit here and mess with my empty sugar packet, and not leave, until Dean tells me to get off my ass and stop brooding." Gabriel grinned, bid adieu to Sam, and waltzed out of the room like he was walking on a cloud.

*:*:*:*:*

Dean found his way back to the breakfast area, trying to find his brother.

"Sam! Come on, we've gotta go! We're supposed to leave in five minutes!" He didn't notice the flash of a smile on Sam's face before he turned to look at Dean, sullen faced. "I'm not going to be any help to you guys, Dean. I'm just going to end up screwing something up- again- and then… Just go on without me, Dean." Dean glared at him. "Sammy, what Gabriel did was unacceptable. He… he just left you hanging there, and that's a shitty thing to do. He coulda at least apologized, but he did something selfish and then abandoned you. So come on! We have got to go, Sam. I'm not leaving you." Sam looked down at the sugar packet, but eventually slid out of his chair, and followed Dean after refilling up his small to-go coffee cup. For some reason, he slid the empty sugar packet that he'd been messing with for the past few hours into his jacket pocket.

The seating arrangements had changed again. Now Rufus had gone into the car that Bobby was in, and had been replaced with Jo, with a word from Dean saying that he trusted her not to be as stupid as Rufus was. Sam was sitting in the front seat, shunting Cas, Gabriel, and Jo to sit in the back. Jo was in the middle.

However more comfortable the atmosphere was in the car, something that Dean did not account for was having Jo in the car.

"So Dean… Cas…" Jo began, very chipper. Dean sighed, knowing that something about their relationship was definitely about to come up.

"When are you guys gonna get married?" Four things happened at once. Dean jolted so violently that he jerked the wheel again, Sam started to laugh, Cas flinched in his seat turning to look at Jo so quickly she thought he might've gotten whiplash, and Gabriel laughed so hard he sneezed.

There was a honk from the car behind them.

"So… I take that as a whole 'you guys haven't talked about it yet'"

"Well, Jo, we're hunters. It's… very hard to get married when you're hunting." There was an almost imperceptible slump of Cas's shoulders. His expression changed. "Why?" Gabriel's eyes widened, and he and Sam glanced at each other.

"What do you mean, Cas?" Dean had such a range of emotion in his voice that it was impossible to tell what all he was feeling.

"I mean, why would it be so hard for two hunters to get married? Sophie and David did it, so… so why couldn't we?" The car slammed to a halt, and Dean pulled over to the side of the road, and he turned around to look at Cas.

"What?" Dean spoke in just a whisper now, eyes wide. Cas licked his lips nervously. "Why not, Dean?" There was a long pause in which everyone had gone completely silent. Jo had, unbeknownst to Dean and Cas- who were completely engrossed in each other- started filming the ordeal soon after Cas had objected the first time.

"What are you saying Cas?" Dean was still barely whispering. Cas swallowed nervously before answering.

"Dean... Winchester…" There was a long pause, and total silence- even Balthazar knew to stay quiet, excepting for the roar of the rest of the hunters cars driving past.

"Dean Winchester." Cas repeated, stronger this time. "Wi- will you marry me?"

*:*:*:*:*

"Rufus, what the hell did you do?" Bobby and Rufus were talking while Raina and Cecil were sitting in the front seat.

"I didn't do nothin', Bobby! Suddenly Sam started getting pissed at me, an' all I was tryin' to do was help. Then Gabe finally actually kissed Sam, and everyone got all quiet."

"And _then_ did you realize that you'd screwed up?"

"Well… yeah. But… I just thought…"

"Well you thought wrong then. Even still, they were actin'; a bit off."

"See? 'm not the only one." Rufus told him somewhat triumphantly. Bobby grumbled something under his breath, before pulling out the papers to go through logistics with Rufus one more time.

*:*:*:*:*

Dean didn't say anything. He just kissed Cas. Jo squealed, and did a little clapping thing. Both Sam and Gabriel were grinning, although with Gabriel, it was more of a smirk. He waggled his eyebrows at Sam. He sighed, and started digging into his pocket, pulling out a twenty. He passed it to Gabriel discretely behind the seat. Unfortunately, Dean had pulled himself from Cas for long enough to see the twenty changing hands. He glared at him, but couldn't put his heart into it.

"Dean…" Sam said, "Are you crying?" Dean stuttered for a moment. "I- I- Dammit Sammy, I just got engaged, I'm allowed to cry!"

"No Dean, I'm happy for you, man, come on." He hugged his brother. Cas turned to Gabriel somewhat nervously. "I'm… sorry if this makes things… awkward… between you and Sam." Gabriel grinned. "Nah, it's fine, Cassie. You live your life with Dean. I'll… live mine." He put a strained element into his smile, for effect.

Dean pulled away from hugging Sam to look oddly at him and Gabriel. "You know I would've thought if things were weird with you and Gabe, you wouldn't be making bets about… me and Cas." Sam blushed dark red. Gabriel looked down at his lap.

"Oh my god, Sam! You make us go through whatever hell that was in the car last night, and what- you get together this morning?" Dean told them exasperatedly. Gabriel shrugged. "Pretty much." Dean threw his hands in the air as Sam's phone rang. He answered, waving his other hand around to tell everyone else to shut up.

"Yeah? This is Sam."

 _"What the hell are you doing boy? Where are you?"_ Bobby growled at him through the phone.

"Oh, uh, sorry, Bobby… Um… We got a bit held up. We'll explain the next hotel. Listen, we're going now." Dean took the cue, and started up the car again.

"Sorry again, Bobby. We'll catch up." Sam ended the call and smiled at the rest of group. "Allons-y, then."

*:*:*:*:*

"Hey, Bobby. Ellen." Sam said, getting out of the car as they arrived at the gas station. Bobby and Ellen were standing at the edge of the car, looking a little mad that they were waiting for the Winchester's car to show up before the rest of them could leave.

"Really sorry about that, um… Dean, you wanna tell him?" He smiled at Dean. Dean turned a deep shade of red, and shrugged. Gabriel laughed. "What? You don't want to tell Bobby the good news?" He smirked at Dean when he turned a darker red. Jo giggled. Ellen and Bobby looked suspiciously at her. It didn't seem to faze Jo at all.

"Uh- um…" Dean started, stuttering slightly. "Uh… Cas and I…" A flicker of a smile flew over his face, before he grinned. "Cas and I are engaged." The words felt weird on his tongue, never having expected ever to say them. Bobby and Ellen were quiet for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Bobby seemed to feel that it would be simply cruel to chastise Dean for holding them up, when he was getting engaged. "Well…. Congratulations."

"How long have you two actually been together?" Ellen asked, as her daughter bounced excitedly in the background.

"About, uh, what is it now?" He looked to Cas, "Four months now?" Cas nodded. "It was a Thursday." Dean laughed. "Oh my god, Cas, how do you remember that?" Cas rolled his eyes, "Well it was kind of an important day for _me_ , Dean. I don't know about you." Dean just shook his head, still laughing, "Nah. Not really that important."

"Just what I thought." Cas said, smiling at Dean.

"What day is it today?" Sam asked, out of curiosity for what day he and Gabriel had gotten together.

"Tuesday." Jo said immediately, "I only know that because _someone_ ," She glared at Sam, "didn't do their job and deal with planning and shit." Sam shrugged apologetically, before going back to his own question. "A Tuesday? Really?" Jo nodded. Sam started laughing. "A Tuesday." He looked at Gabriel. "Of course it's a Tuesday." Gabriel looked at him, confused for a moment, before something dawned on his face and he doubled over laughing too. Ellen looked at them oddly before turning back to Dean. "Congratulations, Dean." She smiled at both him and Cas. "I'm happy for you two." Dean nodded.

"Just as long," Her face suddenly got stern. "As you two treat each other well." They both looked appalled at the idea that either one would do anything to hurt the other. She looked at them suspiciously. "And that includes keeping secrets from each other. That goes for all four of you." Now they all looked a little bit sheepish. They knew that they had a bad habit for not communicating with each other. Bobby nodded along, agreeing with everything that Ellen was saying.

They were shake out of it by Garth jogging up, apparently concerned. "Are you guys okay? You pulled over. Is the car okay?" They all nodded. They all had a happy perk to them that they didn't have before they started on the road that morning. Garth shone when he noticed this, beaming at Sam and Gabriel. "Oh have you two finally stopped arguing? Good. I don't like it when you guys argue." Sam and Gabriel looked down, slightly embarrassed. Sam decided to just play along with Garth. It was probably the best option there. "Yeah, we're fine. Dean and Cas kind of made us see reason." Which could argued that it was half true. Garth beamed again.

"And it'll make you even happier. Dean?" Sam looked to Dean with a Trickster-ish gleam in his eyes that Dean could've sworn that he didn't have before he started hanging around Gabriel. (He'd had to tell himself several times that if they seemed to be friends, and they seemed to make the other happier, then Gabriel couldn't be that bad, but it was kind of hard sometimes when Gabriel appeared to have rubbed off on Sam more than Dean had thought possible on his little brother). Dean sighed, having to go through this with Garth wasn't going to be fun. Not that he wasn't happy, he wouldn't let anyone say that he wasn't happy, but Garth could get a little too… overenthusiastic sometimes. "So, uh, Garth... Don't freak out or anything, but… Cas and I are engaged." Once again came the pause before Garth grinned even wider than he already was, crushed Cas and Dean in a tight hug, and congratulated them loudly. A couple people in their group looked over, as well as a few people they didn't know. Garth eventually let them go, and told them that he was going to tell the others. Dean tried to get him to stop, but he was gone before he could say anything. He sighed, then smiled softly at Cas. "We're getting married." He stated, awestruck.

If someone had told Dean when he was in high school that he was going to grow up to marry a literal angel in a male body, he would've tried to get them admitted. If they'd told him when he first met Cas that they were going to fall in love, he would've punched them in the face and called them a little son of a bitch. If they'd told him this just a mere six months after that, he would've probably gone red, start to stutter, and _then_ punch them in the face and call them a little son of a bitch. If they'd told him that he would marry Cas four months ago- just after they'd gotten together- he'd have definitely blushed and denied that he would ever do something of the sort. Dean hadn't stopped to think about how much he'd changed since he'd been pulled out of hell for a very long time. But he knew that it was true. So much had happened to him since then that he could hardly tell you everything.

Dean was getting married. Even if someone had simply said he'd be getting married straight after he was pulled topside, he'd have just laughed and told them that he really couldn't do that. He was a hunter. Hunters don't get married. He really had to put time aside to thank Sophie and David for making him realize that being a hunter didn't mean that you couldn't live a slightly apple pie life.

"Yeah." Cas told him. "We are."

*:*:*:*:*

The rest of the car trip was relatively normal, nothing much exciting happened. Dean would spend one minute panicking and tapping the wheel nervously, while spending the next grinning sweetly at Cas, and leaning back in the seat, completely at ease with the fact that he was going to be getting married. Sam just wanted to laugh at him. They arrived at New York early in the morning. There had been plans to stop one more time, but they all agreed that they wanted to be done with the car ride as soon as possible. Even Dean was getting a little tired of being in the car in the end. The only interesting development came at dinnertime, when everyone was beginning to wake up. Dean was walking to the lobby where they were going to meet up, when he passed Chrissie's room. The door opened, so he stepped back, giving the door the right of way. When he saw a head of red hair, he furrowed his eyebrows, and tilted his head. "I thought this was Chrissie's room." The head looked at him, eyebrows high. "Oh." Mels said. "Right. Yes. It is." Dean blinked a couple of times. "Okay. Well. I'm heading to the lobby." Mels nodded. "Yeah." Dean awkwardly made his way around the open door, and walked the rest of the way to the lobby in confused silence. He found Sam chatting with Gabriel when he got there. "Gabe, the structural integrity would be the problem, you just can't do that with gummy."

"But I'm an a-" Gabriel whined.

"Nuh-uh. That's cheating. You can't do that. Chocolate for the center would be better- taste better even." Sam countered.

"Guys." Dean interjected.

"But if there's chocolate for the outside, and chocolate for the inside that means it's pure- okay yeah I see what you mean." Gabriel gave in.

"Guys." Dean said again. They didn't seem to hear him.

"See? And if you've got hard green candy for the leaves, it'll bathe the floor in a soft green light." Sam smiled at Gabriel, as if he were indulging him in something that Sam didn't really want a part of.

"Hey. Guys." Dean practically shouted. They still ignored him.

"Hmmm…" Gabriel hummed, "I'm gonna do this someday." Sam laughed. "Sure you-"

"I think that Mels hooked up with Chrissie." Dean blurted out. This caught their attention. Gabriel looked surprised. Sam did not.

"Really?" Sam asked, interestedly.

"What?" Gabriel asked at the same time. Dean offered up his explanation. "I was walking past Chrissie's room, and Mels walked out. I asked her what she was doing, and she got all awkward." Gabriel laughed, smirking. "Well. That's a bit…"

"Expected?" Sam asked, shrugging. Both Dean and Gabriel looked at Sam, confused. Now it was Sam that was smirking at them. "What? You didn't notice? It was a bit obvious. I mean, by now Chrissie's told all of us that she's gay, and then Mels has been interested in her for the entire hunt. Offering to be in her car… Seriously? You guys didn't notice?" Sam shook his head. "You're guys are so unobservant." Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Geez, are there any straight angels?" Gabriel looked thoughtful.

"Michael?" Sam asked.

"No, he became obsessed with Julius Caesar for a while during the Roman empire." Gabriel told him, still looking thoughtful.

"Lucifer?" Sam guessed, pretty much grasping at straws. He didn't know as many angel names as he thought he did. Gabriel laughed. "No. You know, as much as people think that gay sex, and lust and such is the work of Satan, he really was never interested in having sex with anyone."

"Huh." Sam said, unsure of how to react to that.

"Hey!" Bobby shouted at them from the door. "Do you know where Mels and Chrissie are?"

"Uh…" Dean stalled, "They're getting… ready." He finished lamely. Bobby sighed. "Fine. If you see them, tell me." They all nodded obediently. Bobby shook his head, and left again. The receptionist seemed completely uninterested by this, although perhaps if she knew that they were all going to a library so that they could discuss tactics for attacking a nest of vampires, she might have a different view on the matter.

Eventually all of them had gathered in the lobby and Bobby was quietly telling them all what their jobs on the hunt were. Soon, though, they were all on the road, with just one more stop at a gas station before they arrived in New York, and they were able to actually hunt the vampires that they'd set out to do in the first place. It felt a little surreal to Sam, being plunged into this hunt, and realizing how carefully crafted each job had been, and then how he and Gabriel were apparently a couple. It was all so confusing for him, having to figure out that he and Gabriel and he and ben hiding their true feelings for so long that neither of them really knew when it started. He wondered how confusing it must have been for Dean, just now getting that it was really harder than it seemed to force yourself to realize that you've fallen in love with a person. It's a lot more overwhelming than it sounds. Also, Dean had been figuring out his sexuality at the same time, which would've been almost too much for Sam to handle. Since he knew that he wasn't limited to just women, realizing that he fell in love with Gabriel was only made complicated by the fact that he'd killed his brother over and over on that fateful Tuesday. Dean must've felt so lost and alone. He'd never thought that he'd fall in love with a man- a literal angel of the lord no less. And yet there he was, and there Cas was, and none of it quite made sense.

It didn't take long for the group to get excited once they got to the gas station, and they only had a couple hours of driving left to do. It felt like they'd been driving nonstop for days, and nobody wanted to have to sit in the car for any longer. Least of all the Winchesters and Co, who'd had their fair share of car trips to last them for a while. (Or, until the next hunt came along and they had to drive halfway across the country for it). Sam talked to Cas while Dean was in the bathroom. "You know that, since we're an entirely different universe, you're going to have to tell everyone about the engagement again." He smiled at Cas, perhaps a little bit too sneakily.

"You're going to have to tell everyone about you and Gabriel." Cas countered, not even looking at Sam. Sam opened his mouth, floundering for something to come back with. He closed it, looking a bit defeated. "Okay, yeah. That's probably going to be worse than telling people that you and Dean are getting married." Sam smiled again at the prospect of seeing Charlie's face when they told her. That would be fun. Then again, when they told her about he and Gabriel, she would probably react similarly. So Sam would have to remember to tread lightly around her and Dean. Because if he told her about Dean and Cas, then Dean was sure to get Sam back with news about him and Gabe. Quite nastily, he could imagine, too. Dean would probably spin lies about terribly sickening things that he and Gabriel had done. Sam shuddered, and grinned feebly at his brother as he came out of the Gas n' Sip. Somehow they always seemed to end up at a Gas n' Sip. Sam wasn't entire sure why. Or how for that matter. Dean looked at his brother oddly, but chose to ignore the strange smile on his face. It was probably some strange… Something… Dean sometimes didn't quite understand his brother. He often didn't quite understand his brother. Sam was weird. There was no denying that. He loved his brother, but what the hell Sam was doing was quite lost on him. Dean got to his car, pecked Cas on the forehead, and began filling the car with gas. Now Sam was actually grinning, instead of whatever he'd been doing before. (Even he didn't quite know what he was doing before). "You guys are adorable."

Just before Gabriel sauntered over, and, standing on his tiptoes, kissed Sam on the nose.

Sam turned bright red, Jo possibly died, and Dean nearly fell over laughing. "You guys are adorable." He mimicked. Sam grumbled at him, telling him to shut it. This just made Dean laugh harder.

He was still mildly chuckling when they started on their last leg of the journey. He had to agree that they did make a cute couple. The height difference was just hilarious, and he could see that they made each other happy, but that didn't mean that he had to be thrilled with the idea. He was very protective of his younger brother, and he knew how much Gabriel had hurt him so many years ago. He figured that if his brother liked Gabriel, then he should get used to it, but he just didn't want to see Sam hurt by him again. He knew that even though Sam had a sweet guy outside, he was tough, and could handle himself. But he'd seen what the whole Mystery Spot debacle had done to him. It'd taken him and nearly broken him. If Gabriel did anything like that again, (which wasn't likely, granted, but he still didn't want to risk it), then that would probably put him somewhere you couldn't come out of.

Dean's fears, however, were subdued for the time being as he glanced back in the mirror to find Jo over to one side, reading her book, and then next to her was Gabriel, who was sleeping on Sam's shoulder. Sam lazily stroked his hair. Dean knew that it sounded stupid as an adult to say that his little brother was growing up so fast, but he almost meant it. He could remember the days that Sam would talk to him when their dad wasn't there, and he would proclaim that he was in love with a girl from his class. None of them knew what love was back then.

They continued driving. Occasionally annoyed about driving, occasionally just completely at ease. There was a lot of sleeping, as it was a long drive, and they all wanted to be wide awake when they got there. This payed off, as, when they got there, Bobby forced them to start by gathering all of the weapons that they would need, get a few hours of sleep, and then wake up and one in the morning, to finally attack the nest at two.

Sam shoved Dean's shoulder when Bobby asked if there were any questions. Dean glared at him. Sam shrugged. Jo squealed, and Ellen rolled her eyes at her daughter.

"You know, Dean, if you don't say it, then I'm going to let Jo tell them." Dean's eyes widened as he imagined what Jo would say. "You know, Sammy," He whispered to his brother in a last ditch attempt to get his brother to back off, "It's not even going to matter. We're not even in our universe, so it won't make any difference as to whether we tell them or not." Sam scoffed at him, and glanced over at Jo.

"Fine." Dean glanced at Cas, making sure his boyfriend- his fiancé- was okay with him telling everyone. Cas shrugged, figuring it would be a nice run for when it really mattered

"So, um… Since all of you are here…" Dean coughed nervously, glancing around at everyone in the group. He'd never been nervous around people, and it wasn't that he was embarrassed about Cas, so he couldn't figure out what it was that bothered him so much about saying it. "Well you all figured out about… Cas and I at the beginning of the hunt. Back at Bobby's house." In the background, Cecil glanced at Raina.

"We're engaged." There was a moment of silence while people processed the information. Raina quietly slipped fifty bucks to her brother, who was smirking proudly. There was a quiet congratulations from everyone. Jo looked like she was about to fall over. Everyone seemed happy, which was good. Hunts always went better when people weren't mad at each other, or just not pleasant in general. Everyone congratulated them, and headed off to clean their weapons of choice for the raid in twenty minutes.

*:*:*:*:*

"Well," Dean summed up around three hours later, "That was rather anticlimactic." And so it was. They had gone into the nest, and while it wasn't _easy_ , together they were able to get the job done. They'd gone in to discover that there were a hundred odd vampires instead of the sixty or so that they were expecting. Thankfully, Bobby had rounded up _way_ more people to help them than they would've needed, especially because they were joined by a group up in New York that had alerted them to the nest in the first place, so they ended up being fine. Usually vampires didn't gather in such big groups, or rather hunters didn't usually let them get that big, but these vampires had grown quickly and quietly, then relied on sheer size to protect them. The only major incident that they went through was one of the New Yorkers were bitten and turned, but with the help of the cure that Dean had used, they were able to fix that.

Sam, Dean, Gabriel and Cas were all very ready to get back to Bobby's so that they could explain all of what had happened so that they could leave and get everything back to as normal as they could get. They'd talked privately in the car after they'd shunted Jo out to go to Cecil and Raina's car. She'd pouted a bit, but gave in in the end when Dean told her the story of how he and Cas had gotten together.

"Gabriel," Sam asked, "You've gone into different universes in the past, would that be possible again now?" Gabriel sighed. "I was afraid that you were going to say that. Yeah. I can do it, but it's gonna take a while. And we risk running into… strange universes. God that tentacle thing still gives me nightmares." Sam chucked, nodding.

"Although." Gabriel considered, "I suppose if Cas and I… combined our energy and concentration, we could probably get there easier. Faster. Less likely to be traumatized by tentacles." Cas looked back at Gabriel. "Combined our energy? How do you suppose we do that?" He sounded rather scathing.

"Puh-lease. You don't think that I would've suggested it if I didn't know how to do it. Remember? Luci taught me a few tricks as a kid. I still recall most of them. One of the things he taught me was how to combine the energy fields of two angels. He told me that in a hypothetical situation, and Michael turned on all of us, if he and I combined our energy, we'd be able to take him down no problem. Now Cas, I have to warn you, handling this amount of energy… you're not used to it. You're not equipped- hell, your vessel isn't equipped to take that amount of energy. It's not just a lot, it's a shit ton of energy. If you don't think that you can handle it, then we can take the long way around. The weird-ass creepy way around."

"Cas, if this is dangerous then you shouldn't do it." Dean told him, looking worried. Cas shook his head. "No Dean. It does sound dangerous, but I still think that I'll do it. If it's more likely that we're going to get home, then I will do it." Dean still looked uncertain of Cas's decision, but he backed off. Gabriel was ignoring them, and talking to Sam in the backseat. "I'm not going to make you go through that again, Sam. I know how hellish that was for you."

"I didn't say that you were going to."

"I'm just saying. Some of those places were downright terrifying." Sam laughed as Gabriel held a straight face. "I'm serious Sam. I was not prepared to see you with boobs." Dean turned around in his seat. "What?"

"Dean. Turn around. Look at the road." Dean looked at the road, then turned back at Sam. He looked down at Sam's chest.

"My eyes are up here, Dean. And if you look at the road, then I'll explain." Sam smirked at him as Dean glared at him one last time, before finally looking at the road.

"So you remember that time that I was transported to another universe and Gabriel came and took me back and we refused to tell you what happened?" Dean nodded.

"Yeah, well I suppose if we're about to go through that again, then I might as well tell you what to expect. The most terrifying one was probably the one where everyone's arms and legs were just tentacles." Sam was rubbing his hands together in a way that made clear that he was very glad that he had them. Dean's face contorted with disgust.

"Yeah. The second weirdest was probably the one where we were girls. Which was what Gabriel was talking about with the whole boob thing."

"So there's a possibility that I'm going to be turned into a chick?"

"Well it's one of the universes that's closer to ours so… yeah." Gabriel told him, smirking.

"That was only funny because you weren't turned into a girl. _That_ was traumatizing." Sam told him, jokingly glaring at Gabriel. Gabriel shrugged. "Like I said Sammy, I was _not_ prepared to see you with boobs. I think I could handle it now." Sam just shook his head. "Right." He addressed the entire car. "So Gabriel and Cas are going to… bond their power and energy together or whatever, and then use that to go from universe to universe until we get back to ours?" Everyone nodded. Sam settled back down into his seat, looking unsure. After a few minutes of silence, Sam spoke aloud what he'd been thinking about for a while. "I know that you're all just going to laugh at me for this, but what if something goes wrong?" Dean scoffed at him.

"This is what I was saying, Dean. Seriously, because if this goes wrong, Cas is the most likely one to die. Like Gabriel said, if he and Cas are sharing their power, there's a possibility that Cas won't be able to take it, and is going to die because of it." This shut Dean up. Sam continued. "Alternate universes isn't something that we should take lightly. Yeah we've dealt with them before, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be cautious. I can't tell you how many hunters have died because they got careless with simple salt and burns. Every aspect of this job is dangerous, and as soon as you stop being careful then you or the people around you are going to get hurt." Everyone nodded again, but this time it was almost just nodding to themselves. Telling themselves that they were going to be careful. Each of them wanted to get home just as much as the next.

Sam knew that something was going to go wrong. Just as long as no one was permanently damaged, and they all got back, Sam figured that he would be fine with it. He could handle the alternate universes, and he figured that he'd seen enough of them to know generally what to expect. He'd been amused by the original one that saw Dean and Cas with a child. He'd seen the nightmare of still being in the time loop. He'd experienced still having Satan following him around. He'd had boobs, and Gabriel had so eloquently pointed out. He'd was traumatized by having tentacles for limbs. He didn't want to say that he didn't think that it could get much worse than tentacle arms, but he figured that once he said that, then there would be something that was way worse than tentacle arms. A universe where Lucifer had taken over the universe. Sam decided not to think about it.

They continued on in companionable silence, until Dean turned on the radio.

 _"Fall on your knees. And hear the angel voices. O night divine. O night… when Christ was born."_ Martina McBride's voice belted through the car, and Sam scrambled forward to slam his hand on the radio button. "God." He muttered under his breath when he'd sat back down again. "It should be illegal to put on Christmas music on in the middle of November." No one really disagreed.

*:*:*:*:*

It was several days later near two in the morning when they all got back to Bobby's, and none of them wanted to drive any farther, so everyone ended up crashing somewhere in Bobby's house, too tired to argue about who got a bed, and who got a couch, and who got the floor. Even several of the angels were emotionally exhausted to fall asleep in armchairs and, in Gabriel's case, snuggled up against Sam in the same bedroom that they'd woken up in when they first arrived in the universe.

It was an odd feeling of déjà vu when Sam woke up like this. For a moment, he was frightened from waking up so close to someone, but relaxed a great deal when he realized who it was. It was weird to think that just a week or so ago, put in the same situation, he screamed like a seven year old and leaped out of bed while blushing like a virgin. Now he felt so relaxed and at home. But not yet.

It was noon, and most of the hunters had slept for a bit, and left sometime in the morning to get off to wherever they would be needed next. Now it was only the Winchesters and their angels, David and Sophie (David was letting his wife sleep on account of the whole pregnancy thing), and Chrissie, who was in the kitchen eating breakfast with David and Bobby when Sam walked down.

"Hey Sam." Chrissie offered a plate heaped with bacon, which Sam eagerly obliged himself to. He stretched himself out on the dining room chair, yawning as he lazily munched on a piece of bacon. "So." He addressed Chrissie after waking himself up with proffered bacon and coffee that had been set in front of him by Bobby.

"You and Mels, huh?" He had expected her to blush and look down at her food, but he supposed that Chrissie's exuberant personality didn't quite allow for that. She nodded. "I don't know how permanent it can be though, ya know?" Sam shrugged. "I dunno. It's worked pretty well for Dean." Chrissie considered it. "Yeah. I suppose." She still didn't look convinced. "But Cas and Dean had been working together for years before they got together. I only just met her. How'd it work with you and Gabe?" Sam laughed. "I… don't know. Anyone else could look at our relationship for hours and not understand it. It kinda started off like with Dean and Cas now that I think about it. I tried to stab him. You know that I thought that he was a Trickster- not that he isn't mind you. But as a couple… He's just different." Sam reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out the sugar packet that he'd stuck there back at the hotel room. He stared at it for a few moments. "No one could've predicted that he and I would get together, but here we are." Chrissie looked quizzically at the empty sugar packet, but didn't say anything.

"But with you and Mels… If you think that Mels is worth it, then go for it. Ask her to go hunting with you. It'd be good for her. Now that heaven is in shambles, and there aren't really garrisons anymore, so she doesn't really have anything to do anymore. I think that she'll appreciate it. So just find some hunt and call her when you get there."

"You think?"

"Definitely." With Sam's final assurance, Chrissie stood and left, shouting her thanks and goodbye back behind her.

"Well," David commented, draining the last of his coffee, "Soph and I should probably be leaving too.

*:*:*:*:*

Within just a few hours, it was just Sam, Dean, Cas, Gabriel, and Bobby sitting in the living room of Bobby's house. Sam decided to start the long process of explaining everything that was happening.

"Hey, Bobby?" Sam said, somewhat apprehensively.

"You gonna explain what's up with you four now?" They seemed a bit shocked by Bobby's immediate understanding of what Sam was going to say. Bobby scoffed at them. "You think I didn't notice? None of you are acting even remotely like yourselves, but I put holy water in your coffee and I gave you silverware that was actually made of silver, and nothin' happened so I figured I'd keep an eye on you, and if you went rogue, then we had plenty of hunters around that could take you out." Sam and Dean weren't sure of how to take this. On the one hand, they were blatantly obvious, which wasn't good, but since Bobby didn't say anything, they were fine, which was good. Dean was slightly pissed that he didn't realize that Bobby was discretely testing them with holy water, silver and salt.

"Yeah, Bobby, we're going to explain. See there was this witch. And it blasted all of us here from an alternate universe." Sam told him. Bobby groaned.

"I know. So in that universe, Gabriel and I weren't together, and Dean and Cas were, so… That's why we were acting really weird with that. Sorry for worrying you." Bobby sighed. "And why the hell didn't you just tell us?"

"Well we figured out pretty quick that there was a major hunt going on, and we didn't want anyone to get distracted. But we do have a plan to get back. See, Gabe and I have actually dealt with alternate universes before, and Gabriel has the power to basically… throw us from universe to universe. It'll take a while for him to catch up with us, but then he can repeat that until we get to our universe. And since he would have to tote around three other people in this case instead of just one, it would be a lot harder to aim right, and also would drain his power a lot faster, and I think that he said that if he were to run out of energy in between universes, we would all get torn into infinite pieces in less than a fraction of a millisecond. So trying to conserve his power a little, he's going to use a trick that he learned and going to have Cas share _his_ power with him, so that he's more carrying around two people, with more energy, than three people with less energy. Much more likely that we're going to get home in one piece." Bobby had been nodding throughout Sam's entire spiel. He narrowed his eyes, unsure of the plan. "Are you sure that this plan is safe?" There was a moment of silence.

"No." Gabriel replied. "But me going at it alone is even more risky. As Sam said, if I ran out of energy while I was throwing them- nice word choice there Samba-" Sam shook his head affectionately

"Then I would accidentally allow them to basically go through the same process as if you threw someone at high velocity into a black hole. I'm not going to risk that. While it is _definitely_ dangerous to bond Cas and I's powers, I believe that I know how to do it well enough that I'd be able to do it without killing him."

"You believe?" Dean got suddenly looked pissed. "If you're not sure, then I'd rather stay here." Gabriel raised his hands in surrender, "Hey, you don't think that I'm not a little bit apprehensive about this too? He's my brother, okay? Now that Raphael's dead, and Michael and Lucifer are in the cage, I don't have many friends in Heaven. I left before some of them were even born, and before I left, I was a lot more like my older brothers than any of you realize. I tried to associate with the baby angels as much as I could, but I still spent most of my time with Lucifer. How do you think I feel, Dean? You got to bring your brother back to life. If I bring mine back, I'm literally summoning Satan. I can't _bring_ him back without risking the lives of every single person on this planet, and I couldn't promise the safety of anyone. I _love_ my brother, and I wish that he didn't become the Devil and all, but it happened and I still love him, but I can't to jack _shit_ about him being in the cage. How do you think _I'd_ feel if this goes wrong? It'd be my fault and all of you would hate me, and I wouldn't _have_ a family anymore. I just got used to the fact that I got mine back. I can't go back to not having a family. It would kill me." Gabriel had stood up at some point, and there were tears in his eyes. It was obvious that this was something that he'd been thinking about for a while. Dean didn't look angry anymore. If anything, he looked sorry that he'd said anything. He'd never really thought about how Gabriel must've felt bad about his brother dying. After all, Dean still loved Sam even through everything. Even when _his_ brother was Satan, he still loved him.

"I'm sorry." Gabriel muttered, sitting back down. "I shouldn't have shouted. You have every right to be suspicious of me since I have no proof that any of this is going to work. I just have my word that the Devil taught me well." He was staring at his hands as he fiddled with them in his lap. His shoulders were slumped dejectedly as Sam patted his arm.

*:*:*:*:*

They ate a quick lunch before they decided to try to head off, just to bring up their strength even a smidge. None of them talked much, all too busy thinking, and most of their thoughts were too personal to speak aloud. Soon enough though came the time that they'd decided to leave and they had to bring up what they'd been avoiding all afternoon.

"Let's do this." Sam put on a smile, even though he was shaking inside, somehow more afraid of this then he had of many other things that he'd done. Dean nodded in a mock-confident way, while Cas and Gabriel just looked uncertain of themselves. Gabriel grabbed Cas's hand. "I'd close my eyes if I were you guys. They did, and they could hear him begin to chant, "GE BAB NOALANU EL. GE BAB NOALANY EL. GE BAB NOALANU EL. GE BAB NOALANY EL." At some point a faint ringing started drowning out Gabriel's voice, and it took a few moments to realize that it _was_ his voice. The ringing was just getting louder and louder, and eventually it got intense enough that Sam clapped his hands over his ears, falling onto his knees. Dean, a little bit more used to the true voices of angels just held his hands over his ears and scrunched up his face in pain. When the noise and light subsided, Sam and Dean looked up at the two angels. Gabriel's eyes were still glowing, while Cas was looking completely worn out. When Gabriel spoke, he sounded almost ethereal.

"COME ON." He told them, calmly. "WE SHOULD GO NOW. SO I CAN RETAIN THIS POWER." Sam blinked, in complete awe of his boyfriend.

Their vision went black as Gabriel threw them, as accurately as he could into another universe.

*:*:*:*:*

Sam stretched as he woke up, feeling the comfort of his own bed. He didn't know whether it was _his_ bed or some other version of his bed. He glanced around the room. It felt like his room. It felt like home. He stood up, putting his foot on the cold floor. He left the room, and he glanced around the Bunker. The more he saw of it, the more he was able to convince himself that he was back home. As Sam got to the main room he looked up and saw Gabriel munching on some probably wildly unhealthy breakfast. Gabriel smiled when he saw Sam, and he gave a little nod. They were home. Sam's worries drained away, and he felt truly happy for the first time in a long time. He grinned and ran over to Gabriel pulling him into a kiss, pressing himself flat against his body.

"Hey Sammy." Dean's teasing voice echoed to them across the room. Sam jumped away, face red. He started stuttering. Dean laughed at him, "You know you're allowed to make out with your boyfriend, right?" Sam shrugged. "I'm just glad we're home."

"So am I, Sam. But you're still allowed to make out with your boyfriend."

"Dean…" Cas's voice grumbled, stumbling out. "Come back to bed. You were the only thing there that was actually keeping me warm. It's November. In Kansas. I'm freezing and I'm still physically and emotionally drained from whatever it was that we just went through." There was a pause before Dean shrugged. "Hey I'm always down to sleep more." He followed Cas back to where they'd come from.

*:*:*:*:*

When they finished getting their rest, and catching up on things that they'd missed while they were gone, Dean realized that he really did need to tell everyone about he and Cas's engagement.

So he called everyone, and told them to come over to the bunker. Better to tell them all at once then one by one. He called Bobby and Charlie. Kevin, Ellen and Jo. Garth, and Rufus even. Jodie, and Mels. He called Chrissie after calling Mels, just for shits and giggles. 'Come as soon as you can.' He'd told them all, 'And if you're here sooner than others, you'll be staying.' When everyone inevitably asked why, Dean just grinned and told them that they'd see when they got there. There was quite a bit of grumbling from everyone about having to travel all the way from wherever they were to Lebanon, Kansas, but Dean just told them to suck it up and come anyway.

Mels was the first to arrive, obviously. She showed up within seconds of Dean asking her to, which was why she was the last on his list. (He called Chrissie later while Mels was talking to Cas). Surprisingly, Charlie showed up rather soon after Mels did. The only explanation that she would give them was that 'She was in the area and there were some super creepy ghosty things'. None of them questioned it too much.

"So how many people are here?" She asked after Dean got her a beer, and she'd found a room to sleep in. Dean laughed, "Just you so far, and we should be getting Rufus, Ellen and Jo, Bobby and Jodie all in one car in a couple days, then it looks like Chrissie will show up, and Garth and Kevin should arrive sometime after that."

"Okay." She set the beer down on the table in front of her. "So, seriously, what is it that you need to tell us so urgently? And why us? And who is Chrissie?" Charlie leaned closer every time she asked a question.

"Uh, I can't tell you, because you guys are my only friends, and she's a hunter who I'm trying to set up with Mels. I'll explain that part later. After I explain why I called you guys." Dean answered her questions in order, with a smirk on his face. Charlie was about to say something about not being his only friends, when Gabriel interrupted. "I see that I'm not only rubbing off on Sambo, but also you. Sweet. Heya Charlie." He had walked in with an entire bowl of candy bars, grinning at Charlie.

"Holy mother of Spock. You're Gabriel." Charlie looked at him, gaping. A confused expression flashed across Gabriel's face for a second, before he realized that he'd never met Charlie in this universe and timeline. Sam's voice warbled through from another room. "Hey Gabe? Where'd you put the popcorn bowl?" Gabriel looked down to the bowl of candy in his hands. "Uh…" He responded, quickly dumping the candy in it onto the table that Charlie was sitting at. "I have it right here. It's purple right?"

"… Yeah. Gabriel, you know you can conjure a bowl for your candy. You don't have to use our popcorn bowl." Sam sounded like he was laughing at Gabriel under his breath.

"Okay." Gabriel was blushing slightly. Sam walked into the room with a bag of popcorn. Gabriel handed him the purple bowl.

"Charlie!" Sam exclaimed, just finally seeing her. He set the bowl and the bag of popcorn down on the table, and pulled his friend into a tight hug. "I wasn't expecting you here so soon." Charlie shrugged, and explained her weird ghost thing again. "But come on Sam!" She said as soon as she finished her story, "Tell me why I'm here." Sam grinned and glanced at Dean. "Well I won't say the main reason, but… if you want to know _something_ now, then I suppose it's okay to tell you that Gabriel and I got together." Charlie let out a high pitched squeal, and pulled Sam into a hug again, before hugging Gabriel as well. "Oh my god, I'm so happy for you two! What happened?" Sam and Gabriel glanced at each other. "Well." Gabriel said, "That's something you'll have to wait for. Kinda part of the other thing that we have to tell you.

"If you hurt Sam I will tear off your dick and burn it with holy fire." Charlie had a completely straight face. Gabriel went a little pale. "Yes ma'am." Charlie nodded, and went back to beaming brightly.

*:*:*:*:*

Soon everyone was arriving, and one by one, Sam and Gabriel were telling them that they'd gotten together. They all were happy for him, but Bobby was more than a bit suspicious, although they'd expected nothing less of him. Each one threatened Gabriel in some way, and now if Gabriel were to hurt Sam, he'd have his head boiled in holy oil, feet chopped off, angel blade shoved down his neck, dick torn off, liver diced, skin peeled off, fingernails torn out, and thrown into the pit of despair from the princess bride. Gabriel swore up and down to each one that he'd never intentionally hurt Sam. On the other hand, Sam was told by both Mels and Cas that if he were to hurt Sam then he'd better watch his back. Gabriel complained to Sam several times about how unfair this was. Sam shrugged. "I guess people just like me more." And pecked Gabriel on the cheek.

"Hey Dean, guys, everyone. Come on, everyone's here. Let's go. Tell us." Charlie pleaded as they gathered everyone into one area.

"Yeah, yeah, we know. That's why we're getting you all in the same room." Dean grumbled, leading them all into the main living room. They all sat down, except for Dean and Cas, who stood at the front of the room.

"So, a few days ago, we all were on a case." Dean started, "We went down to Texas to hunt this witch. It was supposed to be an easy case, just get there, get some Whataburger, kill the witch, and get out. Well, it all went to plan… until it came to killing the witch. Instead it knocked all of us into an alternate universe. Like the ones that Sammy was in a while back. The universe wasn't all that different to the one that we're in now, except that Sam and Gabriel were the couple instead of me and Cas. But evidently, we were obvious enough that the rest of the hunters found out about us before the hunt even began. Apparently there was this big hunt going on, and we didn't want to distract people from doing their job, so we didn't really tell anyone that we weren't quite from that universe. Okay, when we woke up in that universe, we were at Bobby's, and the hunt was this huge vamp nest in New York. So we got on the road, and at some point there was this whole thing where Rufus- sorry, but you were _not_ being smart about what you were saying- was bothering Sam and Gabriel about not being 'coupley enough', and at some point Gabriel kissed Sam, and it got real awkward in the car. So… we eventually get to a hotel, and in the morning, Gabriel came back, and they eventually got together. It was a whole ordeal, but that's how that happened. But then we were in the car, after that." Dean started to smile, "Jo asked Cas and I when we were getting married." Jo's eyes went wide, and Charlie squealed a little bit.

"I told her- you- that we wouldn't be getting married. Because we're hunters, and it's really difficult for that to work as hunters. Then Cas asked why not. Long story short. Cas and I are engaged." There was the same congratulations and general happiness that they'd gotten in the other universe too, but this one was nicer, because it was the people that they actually knew. Their real friends.

Dean took Cas's hand, feeling totally content. He didn't care about what people might say about them, both being male, then the special few who knew that they were different species. He was happy with Cas, and Dean realized that wholly and completely again. That would hit him occasionally. He had Cas, and he was happy. They all were.

 **A/N: So. This is the end. Unless I come up with something else. I'm not even going to mention the long ass wait that you guys had to go through before reading this, all I can say is, simply, I'm sorry. I'm not going to repeat it over and over. Just the once, because I am, but I don't need to waste anymore time. I love all of you guys.**

 **And hey, thanks.**

 **Really.**


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